11/21/2008
Media attention is shifting to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York--Mr. Tim Geithner, Obama's pick for the next Treasury Secretary. Keep
in mind, Mr. Geithner is not a graduate of the
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry . He cannot defy the laws of
fiat money or risk-laden finance at work around the globe.
11/20/2008
Yesterday was significant in global financial/monetary circles. The yield
on U.S. Treasury's 5-year, constant-maturity "treasury" index dropped to a low
2.08 percent. That rate matched the historic
46-year low first set June 13, 2003, down from its high of 16.27 percent on
9/30/1981. All indicators suggest interest rates will move even
lower as consumers retreat, global markets continue to decline, and central
bankers plan more rate cuts.
"The central banks should lower interest rates to as close to zero as
possible." Olivier Blanchard, IMF Chief Economist
Banks are hiring companies like J. D. Powers
to determine, on a short-sighted basis, what's going on inside consumers' heads
in an effort to motivate the public to borrow more money. Financial
commentators finger global "fear" as driving the free fall. But the
evaluations are superficial at best. Fear is generally a reactive emotion,
not causative. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's characterization of the
financial crisis now plaguing the world, as a "once or twice" in a 100 years
event, falls woefully short of the mark.
The global markets have collapsed due to lack of transparency and trust, a lack of
transparency and trust
based on lack of philosophic and moral integrity. And lack of integrity
creates despair. Over past decades, Western free markets have operated on
the moral capital received since the Reformation. That capital is now
exhausted. The fix? If so-called "free markets" are dysfunctional,
then governments will mandate coercive markets. But history proves this is
unworkable for the long run.
The Western world's commerce has moved from a 'post-Christian'
framework into the avarice and 'politically-correct' realm of anti-Christianity*.
Many business executives seem like anarchist
characters out of a Mad-Max movie, only they wear suits and ties and fly in
private jets. Many judges and large segments of the legal system are
philosophically and morally bankrupt. Little wonder the world is looking
for a messiah or messianic body to restore order and the appearance of sanity.
* The social and economic damage resulting from the recent New Jersey court
decision regarding eHarmony is huge. The economic chill will slowly extend
around the globe. Read:
The eHarmony Shakedown . What made eHarmony a successful business
model was its patented approach to matching heterosexuals--in short
psychological science combined with moral integrity, a moral integrity as defined over
the past 3,500+ years of civilization. The company cut out its soul to
placate critics and the court, as well as to protect franchise value. But its
decision was misguided. It has forfeited the very integrity which
was key to its success in the first place. Founder Neil Clark Warren, who
by now I'm sure is financially comfortable, should have continued to fight even
to the point of a Supreme Court appeal and then closing down the company, if
necessary. Having shown courage, he could
have retired with honor, rather than shame and a beguiled conscience. As a
business, the eHarmony franchise will now sadly die a slow and tortuous death.
11/19.1/2008
Had it not been for Martin Luther (1483-1546) and others like him,
Western civilization would not have existed. Every Christian believer
owes a debt to the stalwarts and martyrs of the Reformation. Believers in
the West
figuratively stand on their shoulders.
11/19/2008
I recently began rereading Francis A. Schaeffer's The God Who is There.
The book was first published in 1968. It's interesting to
see the difference nearly forty years makes in one's understanding. I read
the book in 1970, but of course I didn't really have as full an appreciation for
what Dr. Schaeffer was saying as I have today. His analysis of the 20th
century has largely fallen on deaf ears and his warnings, for the most part,
have gone unheeded.
Both fundamentalists and evangelicals are perplexed at the lack of discernment
to be found in their so-called leaders as well as among members of their
churches. In the name of "love," anything and everything is allowed in
through the doors. Dr. Schaeffer had much to say regarding the perversion
of words and language, and the severe consequence. Christians are dismayed, frustrated, shocked, even
angry, as they witness and experience the cultural shift from a post-Christian
to an anti-Christian society. The cause for this "change" was largely sown
during the prior century, while the corrosive social effects and despair will
continue to be felt.
During the 1960s, Dr. Schaeffer saw a glimmer of hope for maintaining a
'relevance' for historic Christianity. But that hour has past and the
glimmer is now gone. The "perilous times" mentioned in 2 Timothy 3 will
grow worse. Materialism and philosophic "synthesis" is nearly pervasive
throughout American society, as well as its evangelical and fundamental
churches. Dr. Schaeffer wrote:
In this situation [of the later half of the twentieth century] which so
desperately cries out for the remedy which only biblical Christianity can give,
we seem to be failing. This cannot be due to lack of opportunity; already
men are part way to the Gospel, for they too believe that man is
dead , dead in the sense of being meaningless.
Christianity alone give the reason for this meaninglessness, that their revolt
has separated them from God who exists, and thus gives them the true explanation
of the position to which they have come. But we cannot take advantage of
our opportunity, if we let go in either thought or
practice the methodology of antithesis. That is, that A is not non-A.
If a thing is true, the opposite is not true; if a thing is right, the opposite
is wrong.
If our own young people within the churches and those of the world outside
see us playing with the methodology of synthesis, in our teaching and
evangelism, in our policies and institutions, we can never expect to take
advantage of this unique moment of opportunity presented by the death of
romanticism. If we let go of our sense of antithesis, we will have nothing
left to say.
Moreover, not only do we have nothing to say, we become nothing.
Christianity ceases to exist, though it may still keep its outward institutional
form. Christianity turns upon antithesis, not as some abstract concept of
truth, but in the fact that God exists, and in personal justification. The
biblical concept of justification [and sanctification] is a total, personal
antithesis. Before justification, we were dead in the kingdom of darkness.
The Bible says that in the moment that we accept Christ we pass from death to
life. This is total antithesis at the level of the individual man.
Once we begin to slip over into the other methodology--a failure to hold on to
an absolute which can be known by the whole man, including what is logical and
rational in him--historic Christianity is destroyed, even if it seem to keep
going for a time. We may not know it, but when this occurs, the marks of
death are upon it, and it will soon be one more museum piece.
To the extent that anyone gives up the mentality of antithesis, he has moved
over to the other side, even if he still tries to defend orthodoxy or
evangelicalism. If Christians are to take advantage of the death of
romanticism, we must consciously build back the mentality of antithesis among
Christians.
How do we know efforts to "build back the mentality
of antithesis" have largely failed. One need look no further than
Saddleback or Lakewood Church, the Emergent Church movement, and the so-called
evangelical, editorial staff of Christianity Today .
PS. If you're curious to understand the factors which caused the collapse
of Western culture, read Dr. Schaeffer's three
foundational books . His analysis of Western philosophic thought and
culture was second to none. However, there was a crippling effect in his
Reformation heritage. For more, read
here .
11/17/2008
Political idealism has carried the day in America. The dubious election of
Barack Obama and Democrat majorities in the House and Senate mark a significant
advance for America into a Brave New World , to coin a phrase from
Aldous Huxley. In HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? The Rise and Decline of
Western Thought and Culture , the late Francis A. Schaeffer wrote:
Materialism, the philosophic base for Marxist-Leninism, gives no basis for
the dignity or rights of man. Where Marxist-Leninism is not in power it
attracts and converts by talking much of dignity and rights, but its
materialistic base gives no basis for the dignity or rights of man. Yet is
attracts by its constant talk of idealism.
To understand this phenomenon we must understand that Marx reached over to
that for which Christianity does give a base--the dignity of man--and took the
words as words of his own. The only understanding of idealistic sounding
Marxist-Leninism is that it is (in this sense) a Christian heresy. Not
having the Christian base, until it comes to power it uses the words for which
Christianity does give a base. But wherever Marxist-Leninism has had
power, it has at no place in history shown where it has not brought forth
oppression. As soon as they have had the power, the desire of the majority
has become a concept without meaning.
The campaigns leading up to the election were jam-packed with "idealism."
"Change and hope" would usher in peace and unity. The idealists blamed
America and George W. Bush for 9/11 and the "neocons" for unnecessary wars.
In their worldview, all that is necessary is for leaders to sit down, without
preconditions, and talk through their differences. Simple enough!
Unfortunately, this idealism appears to have hit a snag.
According to
DEBKAfile ,
Osama bin Laden has recently issued a "Directive to All Fighters" for a major
terrorist operation upon the United States that will "change the political and
economic world" and be "far bigger than 9/11." The day after Obama's
election, al Qaeda declared America's president elect a
"murtadd,"
i.e., an apostate whose betrayal of Islam is judged the most
heinous. The four major Sunni and one major Shia schools of Islamic
jurisprudence all agree that a sane adult male apostate must be executed.
Obama may want to consider the case of 43 year-old
Abdul Rahman , an Afghan convert to Roman Catholicism , who was arrested and
jailed on the charge of "rejecting Islam." Ansarullah Mawlafizada, the
chief judge, said "the Prophet Muhammad has said several times that those
who convert from Islam should be killed if they refuse to come back. Islam
is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness and integrity. That is why we
have told him if he regrets what he did, then we will forgive him."
After much protest from foreign governments, he was released by the Shari'ah
court on the grounds of being mentally incompetent and subsequently granted
asylum in Italy. Mr. Rahman was divorced by his wife, denied custody of
his two daughters, and disowned by his own parents.
11/10/2008
What is important to keep in mind is that the West's cultural 'death spiral',
began decades ago. It began in the realm of philosophy(1) and has
progressively 'trickled down' through the entire culture: education
(universities to kindergarten), through all forms of media, as well as through
seminaries to clerics/pastors down to families sitting in the pews of their local
churches. The late John Robbins wrote:
In past centuries secular philosophers have generally
believed that knowledge is possible to man. Consequently they expended a great
deal of thought and effort trying to justify knowledge. In the twentieth
century, however, the optimism of the secular philosophers has all but
disappeared. They despair of knowledge.
Like their secular counterparts, the great
theologians and doctors of the church taught that knowledge is possible to man.
Yet the theologians of the twentieth century have repudiated that belief. They
also despair of knowledge. This radical skepticism has filtered down from the
philosophers and theologians and penetrated our entire culture, from television
to music to literature. The Christian in the twentieth century is confronted
with an overwhelming cultural consensus--sometimes stated explicitly but most
often implicitly: Man does not and cannot know anything truly.
Is it any wonder that the world is grasping at
straws--the straws of experientialism, mysticism and drugs? After all, if people
are told that the Bible contains insoluble mysteries, then is not a flight into
mysticism to be expected? On what grounds can it be condemned? Certainly not on
logical grounds or Biblical grounds, if logic is futile and the Bible
unintelligible. Moreover, if it cannot be condemned on logical or Biblical
grounds, it cannot be condemned at all. If people are going to have a religion
of the mysterious, they will not adopt Christianity: They will have a genuine
mystery religion. "Those who call for Nonsense," C.S. Lewis once wrote, "will
find that it comes." And that is precisely what has happened. The popularity of
Eastern mysticism, of drugs, and of religious experience is the logical
consequence of the irrationalism of the twentieth century. There can and will be
no Christian revival--and no reconstruction of society--unless and until the
irrationalism of the age is totally repudiated by Christians.
This crisis of knowledge and the resulting cultural disintegration can be vividly seen in the violent reactions, street riots, and now
tax
protests regarding California's Proposition 8--the constitutional amendment
to stop the redefinition of marriage. Despite California's year 2000, sixty-one
percent voter approval for the traditional definition of "marriage,"
four out of seven California Supreme Court justices ruled, in May 2008, to create a new
definition: Gender is irrelevant to marriage.
The legacy of postmodernist thinking
is that individuals and groups have the "right" to define words anyway they
desire. For them, social/moral knowledge and language are arbitrarily
"created" by those in power. Definitions, which cannot be scientifically
validated, are figuratively 'up for grabs'. So for example, Love = Hate, and Hate
= Love. Radio host Dennis Prager
writes at Townhall :
First, the attorney general of California, Jerry Brown, unilaterally renamed
the proposition as it appears on California ballots. It had been listed as
"Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man
and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Brown, a liberal Democrat,
changed the proposition's wording to: "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to
Marry. Initiative Constitutional Amendment."
The reason for this change is obvious -- to make the proposition appear as a
denial of a basic human and civil right.
Marriage has never been regarded as a universal human or civil right. Loving
and living with anyone one wants to live with are basic human rights. But
marriage is actually a privilege that society bestows on whom it chooses. And
even those who believe that any two unmarried people who want to get married
should be given a marriage license, should regard as wrong an attorney general
changing a ballot proposition's language to favor his own social views. What
Brown did was attempt to manipulate people who lean toward preserving the
definition of the most important social institution in society -- people who
have no desire whatsoever to hurt gays -- to now think of themselves as bigots.
...the multimillion dollar campaign to label proponents of Proposition 8
"haters" and to label the man-woman definition of marriage as "hate." Or as they
put it: "Prop 8 = Prop Hate."
It is apparently inconceivable to many of those who wish to change the
definition of marriage that a decent person can want to retain the man-woman
definition. From newspaper editorials to gay and other activist groups, the
theme is universal -- proponents of traditional marriage are haters, the moral
equivalents of those who opposed racial equality. As The New York Times
editorial on the subject put it, Proposition 8 is "mean-spirited."
But it is the charge of hate (along with bigotry, homophobia and
intolerance) that is the primary charge leveled against supporters of
Proposition 8. That's why one major anti-Proposition 8 group is "Californians
Against Hate."
If opponents of Prop 8 succeed in their effort to redefine marriage (California's
Governator has defied the electorate and is encouraging that it be overturn ed),
what stands in the way of others' so-called "right" of have their definition of marriage
institutionalized?
How can society deny those who want to wrap: incest, pedophilia, polygamy, group
marriage, or union with animals, with their definitions of so-called marriage
and love? Society can't, if it tries to maintain equality.
The abolitionist movement of the 18th century, which was instrumental in
bringing about racial equality, was based on a Christian worldview. It
shares nothing in common with the current illegitimate agenda of homosexuals.
A high percentage of blacks understand how they are being used and exploited by
gays. This largely explains why 7 out of 10 blacks voted in favor of
Proposition 8, while Obama opposes it. The suspension of slavery in
Western industrialized nations is the exception, not a rule. The United
Nations website contains this factoid:
The slave trade is back in full force. This modern slave trade, however, is
not limited to just young Africans; women and children are also being enslaved
in almost every continent. It is estimated that there are over 27 million
enslaved persons worldwide, more than double the number of those who were
deported in the 400-year history of the transatlantic slave trade to the
Americas. What is remarkable is that this unprecedented trafficking largely goes
unnoticed. The 27 million victims of the modern slave trade are more invisible
to the world’s eye than were the 10 million to 12 million Africans who were
forcibly sent to the Americas during the sixteenth through the nineteenth
centuries. How do we account for this fact in this age of media and
communications overload and transparency?
"How do we account for this fact" ...? Simple. The premise
of multiculturalism, that all cultures are only superficially different, is
fundamentally wrong. All worldviews and all cultures are not equal. The current crisis of knowledge will continue to propel
societies in the direction of disintegration, chaos, and anarchy. However,
God is Great; He along can bring Life out of Death.
________________________
(1) The Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians 2: 4 and 8:
I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
See to it that no one takes you captive through
hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic
principles of this world rather than on Christ.
11/7/2008
The Dawkins/Lennox Debate video on Richard Dawkins book The God
Delusion . Enjoy! The debate was hosted by
Fixed
Point Foundation , "We Take Ideas Seriously."
here .
Any similarity between Mr. Lennox's lack of hair and smile, and that of my own
(shown right), are purely a coincidence and self-evident random collision of
chance, matter, and energy. "He teaches at many Christian conferences
around the world, mainly expounding books of Scripture in what he calls
‘apologetic exposition’—that is, showing how Scripture engages with the big
worldview questions that are being asked in contemporary society. He spoke at
the Keswick Convention in the UK and New Horizon in Northern Ireland in 2008."
Vegetables and fruits are essential to a healthy
body.
Intellectual nourishment is equally important to
strong minds
and to a worldview that extends beyond one's baser
instincts.
Cal Thomas, September 2006
11/5.1/2008
Islamic Finance 101 -
"This statement provides an important insight for the incumbent U.S.
administration and whomever succeeds it: Shariah-Compliant Finance serves as a
leading edge of the spear for those seeking to insinuate Shariah into Western
societies."
11/5/2008
Various forces are already on the move internationally. Global foreign
policy equations appear in major flux. Overnight,
Palestinians launched a barage of Qassam missles and mortar rounds into Israel .
An Israel Air Force helicopter responded to the provocations and Israel Deputy
Defense Minister Matan Vilnai says the country is preparing for war.
Syrian tanks, artillery and commando units have taken up battle positions in
four villages around Hasbaya opposite Mt. Hermon and northern Israel.
11/4/2008
"Vote as if it is your last opportunity ever." Sadly, Americans
and American Christians take much for granted. At the top of the list is
social and political freedom. We can't seem to imagine the prospect that
the inheritance left us by the Founders could vanish like 'ice in the
noonday sun '. We can't seem to imagine the further evolution of
"political correctness" into more virulent forms of censorship and oppression.
Having begun my own Christian experience and walk...apolitical , I
understand how believers can read Romans 13:1-7 and adopt a rather
laissez-faire, even fatalistic, attitude toward government and politics, as well
as toward the responsibilities of living within a participatory democracy.
Sad to say, America's eroding tradition of freedom may formally end today.
And as history has proved, once gone it is next to impossible to restore.
Obama's proposal of a "civilian national security
force" is a frightening omen of a darker future. From what dangers will my
neighbor protect me? I ask both faithful readers and visitors, to spend
time today in solemn prayer (over and beyond one's regular practice), that God
will extend grace and mercy to this Nation--both individuals and collectively.
PS. Many media sources describe the current mood of Obama supporters as
"euphoric." Should the election not go their way, their mood and 'frame of
mind' will plummet reciprocally. America's citizenry should brace
themselves for the possibility of violence and civil unrest. But the
probability of a loss appears low.
10/31/2008
Constitutional Crisis? Are those who will lead the Nation above
the law? It appears the U.S. Supreme Court will have to decide.
Attorney Philip J. Berg has filed for an
immediate injunction to stay the Presidential Election of November 4, 2008 ;
together with writ of certiorari. Any normal defendant would willingly
provide the Court with the requested document and be long done with the matter.
It certainly appears that the Obama campaign has indicted itself. One
wonders what the Founders would be thinking?
10/29/2008
In the world of forensic investigation and white-collar crime, the adage "follow
the money" is a given principle. Most of the time, the criminals go to
great lengths to obfuscate reality and employ convoluted subterfuge.
And in George Orwell's, novel "1984," he coined the term " doublethink ." doublethink during this election
cycle. Here's a vivid example:
"Party of the Poor" $639,000,000 dollars - all private "donations ."
(Any claim to "grassroots" contributions as an explanation is highly suspect.)
"Party of the Rich" $360,000,000 dollars - which includes $84 million of
public funding.
What's wrong with this picture? For a more comprehensive look, see
OpenSecrets.org , a purported "nonpartisan" research group.
10/25.1/2008
(Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania – 10/25/08) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, the
Attorney who filed suit against Barack H. Obama challenging Senator Obama’s lack
of “qualifications” to serve as President of the United States, announced today
that he is immediately appealing the dismissal of his case to the United States
Supreme Court. The case is Berg v. Obama, No. 08-cv-04083.
More information
here .
10/25/2008
The judge in the foregoing case tossed out the lawsuit last night (Friday) based
on similar legal reasoning in
Hollander vs. John McCain . See news
here .
10/24/2008
BOMBSHELL!?
TSUNAMIS !?
BERG v. OBAMA et al
Prior chronology of documentation
here .
Further case information from WND
here .
Attorneys for the DNC and Barack Obama are...desperate!
See their response/challenge to Berg's legal standing and their use of stare
decisis from a very recent and suspicious (?) case
here . Bill Wilson writes:
The attorneys [for Obama and the DNC] argue that
disenfranchisement of large numbers of those who vote for an ineligible
candidate for president does not constitute an invasion of legally protected
interest because “the alleged harm is abstract and widely shared or is only
derivative of a harm experienced by a candidate.” The attorneys, therefore,
conclude “a voter does not have standing to challenge the qualifications of a
candidate for President of the United States.” They cited a similar court case
against Republican John McCain ruled on July 24th.
In “Hollander vs. John McCain and the Republican National
Committee”, the judge cited cases brought by leftists such as Michael Newdow of
anti-Pledge of Allegiance fame, Americans United for Separation of Church and
State and Defenders of Wildlife to establish that the voters do not have
Constitutional “standing” to challenge the eligibility of a Presidential
candidate. The judge assumed that “voters are empowered to address that concern
on their own by voting for a different presidential candidate, whose eligibility
is unimpeachable.” The judge said that political parties have the standing to
challenge ineligibility, but not voters. Judges are ruling that citizens have no
right of redress if a presidential candidate is ineligible other than to vote
for someone else.
10/22/2008
A Democratic Election…or Left-wing coup
d’état?
The 37th President of the United States hose to operate outside the bounds of the law (Watergate) and was forced to
resign from the Oval Office.
The 42nd President of the United States His
false statement, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” refers to a
then 22-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky.
Ms. Lewinsky subsequently testified to nine sexual encounters with
William J. Clinton in or near the Oval Office.
Mr. Clinton’s serial perjury and subsequent admission led to impeachment proceedings. While he
was found guilty by the House, he was acquitted of charges by the Senate, and
finished his term in disgrace. This was only the second
impeachment of a President in American history, following the impeachment of
Andrew Johnson in 1868.
The 44th President...Pending.
It now appears that the Democrat presidential candidate, Barack Obama,
also considers himself above the law, even before he may
potentially take office.
Obama, a lawyer and likely with the advice of council, has refused to answer or
object to charges in a lawsuit filed in a U. S. District
Court in August by Pennsylvania Democrat Philip J. Berg.
The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Obama is not a natural-born
citizen, actually having been born in Mombosa , Kenya , and is thus ineligible to serve as
president of the United
States
Further, t he lawsuit charges that the Democrat candidate has lied about
his place of birth, has faked his birth certificate (despite the
image/page Internet rebuttal ), and is fraudulently running for office.
The suit simply asks that he surrender his official birth certificate to
the Court for examination. Why hide a
genuine birth certificate from the Court? For more details, read
the
entire story here .
PS. Given the
extensive revelations, both past and present, regarding ACORN and voter
registration fraud, why the deafening silence from ex-President Jimmy
Carter--the arch defender of "fair elections" integrity?
10/19.1/2008
Bernanke: "Fighting the Last War" Some fresh
air (reality) has blown on to the scene. Don't miss Brian Carney's (WSJ)
interview with 92 year-old Anna Schwartz. "Everything works much
better when wrong decisions are punished and good decisions make you rich"
..."that's not the way the world has been going in recent years."
Read article
here .
10/19/2008
Opinion: The Obama's campaign is certainly
being bankrolled, and campaign rank-and-file do their best (ruse) to make it
appear that it's about 'grassroots' contributions. All the Obama-maniacs
I've encountered still phone home to mom and dad for money. What's wrong
with this picture? Hundreds of
millions from the likes of George Soros and other global socialists, Hollywood, and Muslim connections are
being laundered into this campaign. It's incestuous. Liberals
pouring money into liberal media on behalf of their candidate. Obama has
his picture on every roadside billboard and Internet sidebar available.
And the Left have the audacity to whine about this or that being forced down
their throat?? At best, the suave Mr. Obama and his elite-minded followers are
worshipping at the temple of 'Mammon'. I'll eat moose burgers with
common folk any day of the week.
10/16/2008
Don't miss reading
It's the Debt, Stupid .
Victor
Davis Hanson (bio )
is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University,
and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal. In addition to
being a prolific writer and military historian, he lives and works with his
family on their forty-acre tree and vine farm near Selma, California.
Conservative, theist, but not evangelical, Mr. Hanson is an American
intellectual extraordinaire...with mud on his boots. A rare individual!
10/15/2008
Every Christian's beliefs (theology) directly influences his or her
life and ministry. Every politician's philosophy and worldview directly
influence his or her public policies. And public policies effect the lives
of each and every citizen. While this is not "rocket science," it does
seem to involve a level of reality unpopular with the general public.
Each politician's voting record and associations, public and
private, are a testament to their
worldview, whether he or she is candid about it or conversely seeks to obfuscate and hide that
worldview during public appearance or debates. In our morally chaotic and
'upside down' world, today's liars believe they have a "right" to deceive their
audience. Thus, it is incumbent upon
voters to get behind any and all rhetoric, and discover each candidate's voting
record, associations, and worldview. Citizen beware!
10/11/2008
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
1 Cor. 15:33 ESV
The fact or extent of ideological/social alliances is in no
way profound. However, the
inability for average Americans to ‘connect the dots’ is largely a reflection of
the time-consuming energy necessary to: earn a living, raise families, and
engage in the hundreds of mundane daily tasks associated with living in a fallen
world. This reality renders us
more-or-less vulnerable to events and forces often beyond our control.
The upcoming election is just one of these events.
Not only has Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama not been
properly vetted by a biased mainstream media, alternative sources of information
are largely confined to the Internet and cable news channels.
One such source of alternative
information is
DISCOVER THENETWORKS .ORG:
A Guide to the Political Left (Left Networks) .
As an extension of former ‘60s radical David Horowitz’s
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM, the site “identifies the individuals and organizations that
make up the [political] left and also the institutions that fund and sustain it;
it maps the paths through which the left exerts its influence on the larger body
politic; it defines the left's (often hidden) programmatic agendas and it
provides an understanding of its history and ideas.”
Drawing upon Left Networks and other
sources, James Simpson, former White House staff economist and budget analyst,
has documented Barack Obama’s links to the radical Left in his article
Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis.
Given the current global banking/economic crisis, it does
appear that the U.S.
The fact that Marxist radicalism has found such fertile
ground in America
Much of the drift to socialism in Western culture, ascribed
so exclusively to Marxist influence, is clearly and definitely to be traced to
the natural rights and
natural law doctrines .
[Also see
here ]
It was upon these principles that the professional training
of public school teachers was established, and modern educational theory is the
direct outcome of these ideas. As
against the Calvinist [biblical] conception of man as sinner, man is good; as
against the doctrine of man’s responsibility and accountability to God, of life
as a stewardship, the non-biblical conception of natural rights is introduced
into education. The pupil is
therefore a person with rights rather than responsibilities.
Instead of being accountable to God, parents, teachers, and
society, the pupil can assert that God, parents, teachers, and society are
responsible to him.
10/10/2008
Whether Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan believes
Barack Obama is their Messiah--al-Mahdi '70s cultist Jim Jones.
Make no mistake, the Muslim world is keenly aware that Obama's pseudo claims to
being "Christian" are necessary semantics and political ruse in the
democratic/electoral climb to power and control of the United States.
Four decades ago, in A Crisis of Our Time , the late John Robbins wrote:
Is it any wonder that the world is grasping at
straws--the straws of experientialism, mysticism and drugs? After all, if people
are told that the Bible contains insoluble mysteries, then is not a flight into
mysticism to be expected? On what grounds can it be condemned? Certainly not on
logical grounds or Biblical grounds, if logic is futile and the Bible
unintelligible. Moreover, if it cannot be condemned on logical or Biblical
grounds, it cannot be condemned at all. If people are going to have a religion
of the mysterious, they will not adopt Christianity: They will have a genuine
mystery religion. "Those who call for Nonsense," C.S. Lewis once wrote, "will
find that it comes." And that is precisely what has happened. The popularity of
Eastern mysticism, of drugs, and of religious experience is the logical
consequence of the irrationalism of the twentieth century. There can and will be
no Christian revival--and no reconstruction of society--unless and until the
irrationalism of the age is totally repudiated by Christians.
Such a society is ripe to embrance an articulate, altruistic, political
"Messiah," who offers hollow 'solutions' to national, regional, and global
problems.
10/9/2008
From 10/8/2008 NYT :
As the long-serving chairman of the Fed, the nation’s most powerful economic
policy maker, Mr. Greenspan preached the transcendent, wealth-creating powers of
the market.
A professed libertarian, he counted among his formative influences the
novelist
Ayn Rand *, who portrayed collective power as an evil force set
against the enlightened self-interest of individuals. In turn, he showed a
resolute faith that those participating in financial markets would act
responsibly.
An examination of more than two decades of Mr. Greenspan’s record on
financial regulation and derivatives in particular reveals the degree to which
he tethered the health of the nation’s economy to that
faith .
The Reckoning: Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy ,
Peter S. Goodman, The New York Times . Underline emphasis
mine.
______________________
* "Atlas Shrugged," Rand's magnum opus, is sometimes said to be the
second-most influential book in American thought, next only to the Bible. The
reason for the books' success probably has less to do with their novelistic
merits, or lack of them, than with the way they package in fictional form a
philosophy Rand called
Objectivism , which in effect turned the Judeo-Christian system on its head.
In Rand's view, selfishness was good and altruism was evil, and the welfare of
society was always subordinate to the self-interest of individuals, especially
superior ones. In some ways, Objectivism is an extreme form of laissez-faire
capitalism, a view that Rand came to naturally.
Both Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan were atheists,
naturalists , and political utopians. As we see and feel
today, their form of "faith" (which rejects the biblical view of mankind) has
had far-reaching, adverse consequences. Like it or not, religion and
politics/culture go hand-in-hand.
As has been previously written about in The Journal , "faith" has
replaced truth in our secular culture. All political candidates speak of
"faith" as something virtuous in and of itself, with little-to-no regard for or
understanding of truth . Of course, this is
to be expected since postmodernist culture abandoned the concept of absolute
truth and revelation
10/8.2/2008
From reader comments, 10/7/2008,
Score one for Scientific Creationism ?!
I would [currently] classify myself as an old-earth designist. I
was totally wrong in accepting Darwinism/materialism as a settled explanation
for the origin and diversification of life, so I am now more open to being
proven wrong on other points.
Back in my atheist days I remember people mocking the Genesis account
[Gen. 1:3-5] about light being separated from darkness before the appearance
of stars, but it now appears that this is accurate: The universe began in a
flash of light (ultra-high-energy gamma rays) that condensed into matter
(non-light, or darkness) long before nuclear fusion ignited the first stars.
Perhaps we’ll discover that the speed of light has
changed, or that time itself has morphed in such a way that six days in
contemporary time is mathematically equivalent to 13 billions years in morphed
cosmological time
[click here to see my
3/19/2006 entry in The Journal ] . I was dead wrong about
Darwinian orthodoxy, so I’m open to being proven wrong about my assumptions when
it comes to the mysteries of the universe, about which we obviously only have a
slight inkling.
Gil Dodgen, Uncommon Descent
It's refreshing to witness repentance (change of mind), integrity and humility
(acknowledgment of such changed) from the scientific crowd. Let's hope and
pray, as the younger crowd says, "it goes viral."
"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of may father's hired men
have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go
back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you...'" Luke 15:17,18.
10/8.1/2008
Bloomberg reports that French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, who met with European leaders in Paris on October 4th, called for a
global summit to implement "a real and complete reform of the international
financial system.” Sarkozy said, “We want a new world to come out of this.” The
world is at the very least preparing a type and shadow of the one world system
used by the antichrist (sic) as prophesied in Revelation 13:16-17: “And he
causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or
sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his
name.” Who would have thought that America would lead us there?
Bill Wilson, The Daily Jot
10/8/2008
It appears the
"lender of last resort" (LOLR) is becoming the "lender of first resort."
10/3.1/2008
Results of the 2004 Presidential election helped sociologists present some very
interesting data. For example, the
Ray C. Bliss
Institute of Applied Politics , in conjunction with the
Pew Forum on Religion
and Public Life , produced the following chart and definitions for the
various groups.
Religious right: White evangelical Protestants with traditional
beliefs and practices
Heartland culture warriors: White non-evangelical Christians
with traditional beliefs and practices
Moderate evangelicals: White evangelical Protestants with
moderate beliefs and practices
White-bread Protestants: White mainline Protestants with
moderate beliefs and practices
Convertible Catholics: Non-Latino Catholics with moderate
beliefs and practices
Religious left: White Christians with liberal beliefs and
practices
Muslims and Others: Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other
religious groups not otherwise categorized
Seculars: Voters with no religious affiliation, beliefs, or
practices
Jews, Latino Christians, black Protestants, and the spiritual
but not religious
are self-explanatory
Supposedly, survey data suggested such categorizations. The Pew Forum
maintains its U.S.
Religious Landscape Survey
Religulous
Read online mag Christianity Today's movie review
here .
American Catholics may be responding to the mockery above and the issue
mentioned previously below.
Source: Pew Forum
10/3/2008
The Vatican's web designers must include some highly-skilled artists, because
the site , like
many things Italian, displays elegant craftsmanship and beauty. Too bad
the theological content doesn't match the packaging. However, now and then
members of the "Holy See" do get things right.
For instance, the head of the Vatican's Supreme Court of the Apostolic
Signature , American Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis, recently
took aim at high-profile Democrat politicians who label themselves "Catholic"
but reject their church's beliefs and teachings. High on the list are
Senator Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Burke candidly told an Italian newspaper that the U.S. Democrat Party risked
“transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on
bioethical issues.” This is not the only issue in which the
liberal Left aligns itself with death. The core of the problem, conveniently
ignored by Prefect Burke, is that a majority of American Catholics are
naturalists , not theists, having been indoctrinated by public education
somewhere along their education journey. And, add to their
naturalistic
philosophy
postmodernism , and you get individuals who feel righteous in [mis]representing
Catholic teaching anyway they choose.
Not mincing words, Burke said Biden and Pelosi, “while presenting themselves
as good Catholics, have presented Church doctrine on abortion in a false and
tendentious way.” Ok, so again, what's wrong with
misrepresenting facts ("facts" the elite know only exist in the 'eye of the
beholder') and lying when it serves the purpose of gaining and holding power?
9/30.3/2008
"Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is
true. We have a team of four people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and four in
Arizona. Not a single one looking into ACORN, Ayers or Freddiemae (sic).
[The] editor
refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting
you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC
run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into Obama is
derided or flat-out ignored. The fix is in, and it's working."
9/30.2/2008
The "Invisible Crash" Is Now In Sight - Mark Skousen. See
quotation reference at 9/24/2008 below.
9/30.1/2008
ACORN, Obama, and the Mortgage Mess - Mona Charen ;
An ACORN Falls from the Tree - Ken Blackwell
9/30/2008
"The Paulson Plan destroys capitalism (those who stood to
gain--and already made off with large gains--should bear the risk) and violates
the spirit of democracy established by the Founding Fathers of the United
States." - Janet M. Tavakoli
Stock Market Futures Up on Tuesday? There are
several very intelligent individuals who are and have been warning that the
stock markets are being heavily manipulated and more seriously, the crisis
(which is genuine) is being 'gamed' by individuals and groups with seriously
nefarious motives. See links below.
The "Paulson Plan" (aka "No 'Connected' Banker Left Behind")
was shockingly contrary to America's political history of checks and
balances . Newt Gingrich was well within the bounds of reason to issue
a call for Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson's resignation.
Paulson, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, reeks of conflict of
interest. Despite nomination by George Bush,
Paulson's ideological DNA is Democrat and he is deeply connected to Democrat
Party operatives.
There is developing evidence of a Leftist organized strategy
to seize control of America at this election. This is a very serious war
for the future of the Nation. Keep in mind that a bi-partisan group (95
Democrats and 133 Republicans) voted against passage of the ill-conceived bill.
Karl Denninger -
Bernanke PROVED Paulson Plan Bankrupt
Karl Denninger - Those Who Supported The Bailout
Alternative Solutions: These are not all the same.
Caveat emptor!
How To
Fix Our Banking System - Denninger
Specific Proposed Alternative to (the Various Versions) of the Paulson Plan
- Tavakoli
SqueezePlay : September 26, 2008 - Tavakoli
Bankruptcy, not bailout, is the right answer - Jeffrey A. Miron
They Broke It. You Bought It. - Newt Gingrich
Voting for the Bailout Bill - Newt Gingrich
Bailout Bill Fails in House Vote (!) - Chris Martenson
Bailout marks Karl Marx's comeback - Martin Masse
Three Step Plan - Dave Ramsey
9/29/2008
Benjamin Franklin said, "A full Belly makes for a dull
Brain." Poor Richard's Almanac , p. 66. The fallout from the
current financial crisis may mean some sharpening of the public's collective IQ
as well as give pause for some serious reflection. Or maybe not. One
can also pray that God, in His mercy, grants light to those, both in and outside
the Church, who walk in darkness. "God has never acted in love at the
expense of light." Ephesians 5:13 and 14 exhorts us:
But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it
is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake
up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
Albert Mohler has written a fairly balanced article
entitled,
A
Christian View of the Economic Crisis.
9/28/2008
From time-to-time, I've mentioned Professor Emeritus Phillip
E. Johnson, author of
Reason In The Balance and many more popular books. This past
week, I scanned chapter 2 of his book entitled:
The Established Religious Philosophy of
America . This chapter, with my underlining and marks, goes a
long way in explaining (in a concise manner) the roots of America's current
"culture wars" and the chasm between various religious and political
parties.
9/24.1/2008
The Root of the Current Crisis: As I alluded to on
9/15/2008, it was homosexual* and ultra-liberal
Barney
Frank-D (House) and
ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee who, back in the 2003,
blocked
the Bush Administration's efforts to improve oversight and regulation of GSEs
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as continued the
Community Reinvestment Act floodgates of sub-prime mortgage lending
spawned by the Clinton Administration (circa 1995). As is now being revealed,
many in Congress were on the 'take' from executives at Fannie and Freddie.
Of course Democrats deny culpability and the facts are being obscured by the
pro-Democrat/liberal mainstream media--MSM. Deep corruption. However, FoxNews is carrying
bits-n-pieces of
the 'inconvenient' story.
* You might wonder what bearing Mr. Frank's sexual
orientation has toward the current crisis? It represents the
libertarian (libertine) component of libertarian socialism , mentioned in the
prior post. Who we elect as representatives does matter a great deal.
This cartoon by
Glenn McCoy is rather insightful. Historically, evangelicals have
supported a "compassionate and moral-based capitalism" (e.g., Is Capitalism
Christian?: Toward a Christian Perspective on Economics , Crossway Books,
1985) anchored in a Christian worldview as opposed to both 'big government'
totalitarianism or libertarian 'free market' philosophies of Alan Greenspan, Ayn
Rand, Murray Rothbard, etc.
9/24/2008
If you haven't taken the time to watch
Chris
Martenson's Crash Course , this may be as good a time as any.
I don't necessarily agree with every point in his presentations, but my
differences would be more technical in nature. Many of the financial/money
issues have been known about for decades, if not centuries. My first
exposure was in the early '70s as I struggled to raise a family. My early
education came from James Dines' 1961 book The Invisible
Crash: What It Is, Why It Happened, How to Protect Yourself Against It.
The proposed $700 billion (?) bailout is
more-likely-than-not necessary to prevent a financial
'meltdown' in the current Western fiat-based financial system.
Accountability for the money is also necessary to ensure
fiscal responsibility. At least the socialism aspect of the U.S.
current political philosophy--libertarian
socialism
I am not hopeful that moral responsibility will prevail,
since that depends upon genuine morality based on genuine Christian
spirituality and worldview . I hope my view is proven wrong.
The alternative (withholding monetization of additional U.S.
Treasury debt) is unspeakable by any and all public figures (except for Ron Paul
who was unable to clearly articulate the issues during the political primaries)
as that would likely trigger additional fear and panic in the general public.
A "meltdown" would likely cause untold social chaos and damage, as well as
millions of deaths from collapsing infrastructure and starvation...worse than
the 1929 Great Depression, where people were self-reliant and less dependent
upon energy infrastructures. This is not hyperbole, but a transparent and
candid opinion shared with regular readers to this website.
During a House hearing, Secretary of Treasury Paulson
responded to Ohio Republican Steve LaTourette:
“He (an individual in Rep. LaTourette's district) should be
angry and he should be scared – and I think right now he’s angrier than he is
scared,” said Paulson “And it puts us in a difficult position—no one likes to be
painting an overly dire picture and scaring people, but the fact is that if the
financial markets are not stabilized the situation can be very severe as it
relates not just to his current situation – but keeping his
job life... this is a serious situation and one he
should be concerned about.” Word substitution mine.
Most Americans (hurricane victims of Katrina and Ike
excluded) take for granted the vast quantity and variety of food in their local
grocery stores. Little thought is given to the various points on the globe
(e.g., South America and New Zealand for fruit) that are the source of this
"Good Eats" cornucopia, and the energy infrastructure that's utilized to create
such edible choices. You need to awaken from this slumber.
From an eschatological view, financial and social collapse
of Western powers (largely the United States) would set the stage for 1) a power
grab in the Middle East, and 2) a global electronic money system (Revelation
13:17). With the West paralyzed, Islamic leaders and nations, with their
inherent hatred and enmity toward the Jewish people and Israel, would be
unrestrained and likely to launch all out attacks upon Israel.
9/18/2008
The current situation is grave...shades of the "black horse"
of Revelation. Internet money sites like Bloomberg, WSJ, and MSN Money
(Jon Markman) are making available many excellent articles explaining the
current global financial situation. Consequently, there is less need for
any comment here. Readers should review my earlier comments and linked
sources.
9/15/2008
Do not be politically misled by the current financial
turmoil. Currently, stock market indexes are only slightly down. The
problems stem from policies (of lack thereof) of Western central banks,
not the Executive branch of the U.S. government.
It is the Legislative branch of government that creates laws and regulations.
Accountability and oversight of the Federal Reserve (central bank of the US) is
the responsibility of Congress, both
House and
Senate
Committees, which are both controlled by Democrats . Obama
campaign statements seeking to connect the crisis to Republicans is pure
political propaganda (again) and an effort to preempt exposure of the failure of
these Democrat-controlled congressional committees.
9/12/2008
Yesterday was the 7 year anniversary of the 9/11/2001
Islamic-Jihadist attacks upon America. Authors like David J. Jonsson,
Islamic Economics and the Final Jihad: The Muslim Brotherhood to the
Leftist/Marxist-Islamist Alliance , have comprehensively documented this
alliance, as well as Barack Obama's connections and sympathies. Despite
yesterday's efforts on the part of both major political party to appear unified
during commemoration ceremonies, Michelle Malkin has written an insightful
article explaining
The World (and many Democrats) Still Blames America.
Parenthetical insert mine.
9/9/2008
The Hate-wing media is rabidly taking aim on Sarah Palin's
born-again Christianity. It is very important that the fight be joined,
and the anti-Christian bigotry be exposed. Dr. Johnson's comments below
should be used to counter every objection to Sarah Palin's Christian worldview.
The mainstream media 'conversation' normally follows the Internet
blogosphere...so get prepared to join the coming conversation. It will
likely be a 'doozy'.
9/8/2008
Having sensed a colossal error,
Barack Obama is politically backpedaling on his "flip" comment regarding
abortion . With this lack of philosophical grounding, he may be unfit for
all forms of "social service." What his answer plainly infers is that moral questions are...ultimately unanswerable.
In fact, because of the crisis in knowledge , moral
questions are "above the pay grade" of nearly all Democrats, as well
as many Republicans and Independents. Senator/lawyer Joseph Biden's
response to similar questions is disingenuous and typical of weasel lawyer-speak. "I'm prepared as a
matter of faith [Roman Catholic] to accept that life begins at the moment of
conception. But that is my judgment," Biden said on NBC's Meet the Press .
"For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even
more devout [or secular] than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic
society." Inappropriate in a pluralistic society?? Joe Biden's
brain just 'blue screened', and he needs a re-boot.
It is NOT inappropriate to impose moral judgments in a
pluralistic society! It's done hundreds of times by government every day.
Biden is the typical liberal Roman
Catholic...religious in label only. His worldview is fully secular;
"secular" judgments are acceptable in his view.
His acceptance of "his church's teachings that life begins at conception" is a
total political ruse. Proof? See
Charles J. Chaput's, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our
Catholic Beliefs in Political Life , a full frontal rebuke to Senator
Joseph Biden. Nancy Pelosi suffered a different problem earlier in the
month when she misrepresentation Catholic moral tradition on global TV, which
then triggered an
appointment with San Francisco Archbishop Niederauer .
PS. Roman Catholic leaders make a big deal about
Catholic unity vs. non-Catholic "division." Despite the truth of Matthew
10:34, it's a totally phony argument. Catholic division is widespread and
deep; they just aren't transparent about it due to the burden of maintaining
claim to being the "one, true church."
If John McCain made a good choice with Sarah Palin, Barack
Obama made a suicidal choice with Joseph Biden...the nasty, "let's rumble,"
street-fighting attorney.
For some so-called "balance" and antithesis to my comments,
read
WashingtonPost, "On Faith," Jacques Berlinerblau's blog posts.
Sites like: "On
Faith", Talk2Action.org, CrossLeft.org are favorite gathering spots for the Religious Left.
9/4.1/2008
The
reaction of liberal mainstream media and feminist women to Governor Sarah Palin
is extremely telling.
America type of "feminist" to be elevated to the 2nd
highest office of the Nation. What
“type” of feminist is Sarah Palin?
Sarah Palin is not a naturalist like them, but a Christian theist--and thus
a serious irritation and threat to liberals and Leftists all.
Phillip E. Johnson, in his book
Reason in the Balance (previously mentioned on this website), goes to the
heart of the issue:
“Is God the true creator of everything that exists, or is
God a product of the human imagination, real only in the minds of those who
believe?
“If God really does exist, then to lead a rational life a
person has to take account of God and his purposes.
A person or a society that ignores the Creator is ignoring the most
important part of reality, and to ignore reality is to be irrational.
“The most influential intellectuals in America naturalists , who assume that
God exists only as an idea in the minds of religious believers.
In our greatest universities, naturalism—the doctrine that nature is “all
there is”—is the virtually unquestioned assumption that underlies not only
natural science but intellectual work of all kinds.
If naturalism is true, then humankind created God—not the other way
around.
In that case, rationality
requires that we recognize the Creator as the imaginary being he always has
been, and that we rely only on things that are real, such as ourselves and the
material world of nature.
Reliance on the
guidance of an imaginary supernatural being is called superstition.”
9/4/2008
Yesterday, we experienced a major operating system (OS)
failure, i.e. computer "crash." After 6 hours on the phone with Dell
Computer technicians (from the Philippines), we were able to partially repair
the system to a point for making fresh back ups of all critical data. The
system remains unstable and will likely require being rebuilt from the ground
up. Regular posts to The Journal and email correspondence may be
interrupted at any time. Any supporters so led to financially contribute
to helping upgrade hardware and software, your assistance would be deeply
appreciated.
9/2.1/2008
Palin Update: The Palin family has
acknowledged in the national media that their 17-year-old, unmarried daughter,
Bristol, is pregnant. The eNews channels and the Blogsphere have gone
hyper--a 'national' if not international 'conversation'. Contrary to Barack Obama's value that he wouldn't
want his daughters "punished with a baby," Bristol will carry the baby
to term and will marry the father--circa pre-1960's.
A majority of parents know that teaching “values” doesn’t
insure that their children will always make the best choices. For many
parents, their own personal experience confirms the maxim. The fact that
disconnects between ‘values taught’ and ‘values caught’ occur
is not always evidence of parental failure; rather, the fact that each human
being has volition and individual responsibility cannot be overlooked. If
a born-again Christian, add to this the whole matter of personal sanctification
and holiness.
Contrary to what some children think, genuinely loving
parents impart values, are not interested in controlling their adult children's
lives, and yet always remain concerned with their kids well-being. These
attitudes become "hard-wired" through the process of being a parent.
Most of us become adults through a combination of listening
to those wiser than ourselves (including God through His Word) AND learning from
our mistakes. Those who do neither, remain children.
PS. I view the current media chaos as a rather
energizing force for public conversation. God often uses such events to
arrest people's attention. The year was 1969 and the place was the student
center at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. As a new 'babe
in Christ', I stood to testify of my newly-embraced belief and to debate a
highly-visible campus cultist. A large crowd gathered to witness the
spectacle. After the dust settled, a handful of students approached me to
share how God has used the conflict to convict them of sin and need for the
Savior. His Word did not return void. The Lord will use the current
cultural turmoil to awaken souls to their spiritual needs. Your
responsibility is to be spiritually ready to help them grow...."in grace and
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."
9/2/2008
The leftwing blogosphere (e.g., DailyKos), together with
mainstream media, has taken aim on Sarah Palin and her family. As a
"fundamentalist politician," the lefties are desperately creating and furthering
any and all scurrilous rumors in hopes of besmirching the Republican ticket
and shifting attention away from Barack Obama's problems
of religious
identity ,
questionable citizenship , as well as policy views in general. [The
DailyKos participated in publishing a forged birth certificate for Barack
Obama.]
One could easily see this coming, based on the intensity of
vitriol, hate, and anti-Christian bigotry prevalent in much of the urban segment
of society. At first it was veiled, but little-by-little it has become
more acceptable (politically correct) for mainstream media to express such
bigotry in public. The nature and cause of such bigotry is chronicled in
two excellent books:
Reason in the Balance, The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education ,
Phillip E. Johnson, InterVarsity Press, 1995;
The Secular Revolution: Power, Interests, and Conflict in the Secularization
of American Public Life , Christian Smith-Editor, University of
California Press, 2003.
8/29/2008
Any George Soros Puppets Here?
“Sarah Palin is a conservative first-term governor of Alaska
with strong [born-again evangelical Christian ] anti-abortion views, a
record of reform and fiscal conservatism and an outsider's
perspective on Washington. She is also an avid sportswoman...”
"...husband, Todd Palin, is part Yup'ik Eskimo, [commerecial fisherman], a
blue-collar North Slope oil worker, and who competes in the Iron Dog, a
1,900-mile snowmobile race. The couple lives in Wasilla. They have five
children, the youngest of whom was born in April with Down syndrome."
The main stream media (MSM) are beside themselves on this choice for VP.
Did you pick up on Obama's emphasis upon "four more years" of a Bush/Cheney
administration? His strategists so wanted to link the McCain ticket to
Bush, et al. Criticizing VP candidate Palin for inexperience is a case of
the "pot calling the kettle black."
Based on the bizarre questions being posed by the Lefties, they absolutely don't
get it. The Left believe they won the election last night after Obama's
slick and choreographed speech. Many are genuinely resentful regarding the
Republican Party's conservative religious base. From their false
conception of a passive and effeminate Jesus, they mockingly call it the
constituency of "God and Guns." They don't understand or
wish to acknowledge the voting constituencies of conservatives, libertarians,
blue-collar values voters, pro-energy conservationists, pro-life, pro-gun,
traditional Catholics, and the largest block of all--genuine evangelicals.
This was the core Republican base that John McCain needed on board.
8/28.1/2008
I've spent 30 of my past 40 years employed full-time as an auditor/examiner.
I've been paid, very modestly, to ensure that smoke and mirrors do not obfuscate
financial reality and truth. I have faced years of retributive
discrimination for being a Bible-based Christian, as well as secondarily white
and male. It is thus difficult for me to listen to the stream of
obfuscation put forth by the Democrat Party at their convention in Denver,
Colorado. It's particularly painful for me, since I was born in Denver and
Colorado has been my home for a majority of my 59+ years.
Much of America's current economic difficulties are historically attributable to
utopian Democrats and the self-serving actions of their administrations.
Of course politics being politics, the Administration in power is blamed for the
difficulties of the current status quo, when in fact the Democrats advanced many
of the very policies and financial Ponzi schemes that bedevil today's average
men and women. Foolishly, the Nation is again enthusiastic about
"libertarian socialism." The liberal citizenry wants a libertine
environ of their own creation, yet a cradle-to-grave governmental safety net to
offset personal bad decision and moral accountability.
The Democrat Convention was an extremely well orchestrated media event, their
candidate an articulate and charismatic voice, who is given the perfect
spotlight by a highly-savvy main stream media. It's amazing what you can
get when George Soros pays for the speech writers. Then, for a citizenry that can
write checks to Todd Bentley, how can anyone be faulted for being mesmerized by
the appearance of Barack Obama? The public has found a messiah and are
little interested in this candidates past associations, worldview, or potential
to "change" the game after being elected to the highest office of the land.
It is all about change, isn't it?
The Republican alternative may be rife with shortcomings, but I do not look
forward, as a Bible-believing Christian, to an America directed by Barack Obama
and his Left-wing and relativistic minions--minions who harbor very deep-seated
rage and hate against the Creator God of the Universe and a Christianity based
on biblical truth. Undoubtedly, this election comes down to passion vs.
passion...and the mercies of God upon a Nation that in its past has sought to
acknowledge Him as Surpreme.
8/28/2008
The re-establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 has not only thrown a wrench in
amillennial thinking, but it has also thrown a chink in much of premillennial
thinking. Amazingly, some premillennialists have concluded that the present
state of Israel has nothing to do with the fulfillment of prophecy. For some
reason the present state some how does not fit their scheme of things, and so
the present state becomes merely an accident of history. On what grounds is the
present state of Israel so dismissed? The issue that bothers so many
premillennialists is the fact that not only have the Jews returned in unbelief
with regard to the person of Jesus, but the majority of the ones who have
returned are not even Orthodox Jews. In fact the majority are atheists or
agnostics. Certainly, then, Israel does not fit in with all those biblical
passages dealing with the return. For it is a regenerated nation that the Bible
speaks of, and the present state of Israel hardly fits that picture. So on these
grounds, the present state is dismissed as not being a fulfillment of prophecy.
However, the real problem is the failure to see that the prophets spoke of two
international returns. First, there was to be a regathering in unbelief in
preparation for judgment, namely the judgment of the tribulation. This was to be
followed by a second world-wide regathering in faith in preparation for
blessing, namely the blessings of the messianic age. Once it is recognized that
the Bible speaks of two such regatherings, it is easy to see how the present
state of Israel fits into prophecy. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Footsteps of
the Messiah
8/26/2008
Propping Up The Dollar - The Chinese communist central planners are no
dummies. Having joined the industrialized-capitalist world in a big way,
they now realize their nations power is largely based on importing technology
and "know-how" from Western nations while maintaining a viable export market
into those small nations. Thus, it should come as no surprise, that the
are coming to the aid of the U.S. banking system.
The positive movement in the dollar caught many by surprise.
The exact cause has taken some time to identify, but UK financial columnist
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes about the
recent actions of Chinese banks which surely contributes to the positive
surge at the tail of the above graph.
8/23/2008
I'm not an economist...thank goodness. Rather my professional training
(aka 'tent making') has been in accounting and technology. Despite the
questionable reasoning, from time-to-time, of the Financial Accounting
Standards Board (FASB), accountants are economic realists. Accounting
is the language of business, but postmodernism seems to have even affect this
discipline. Traditionally, at the end
of each day, the books must be in balance ...debit must equal credits,
even if it means "plugging" (creating a temporary debit or credit) to make it
balance.
[As a professional hazard, I've been known to awaken during the night with my
brain hard at work seeking an explanation for some encountered imbalance...and
all this taking place without my expressed permission. Accountants often
joke about the mental phenomena.]
Such is the current case with the global credit crisis, inflation, stock
markets, and commodity prices, particularly oil, gold and silver. There
are some very
odd phenomena taking place which defy common rules of economics (supply and
demand) as well as balancing the books. Things just don't add up. When
events (effect) defy normal rules of behavior, one intuitively knows that some explanation (cause)
must exists. The challenge is identifying the cause,
keeping in mind the possibility that someone or some group may intentionally
be concealing facts for personal gain. For accountants, such investigative activity is called
forensic accounting.
Take for instance the recent run up in the price of crude oil and now the
rapid price decline . Supply and demand? Or take the current case
of the falling prices of gold and silver, while there simultaneously exists a
widespread
physical shortage in gold and silver . This defies common sense.
Shortages cause prices to increase, not decrease...unless, of course, the market
is being intentionally manipulated. Such may be the case, when you examine
the following activities.
The U.S. and other western banking systems are creating massive levels of
liquidity (fiat paper money) in an effort to keep western economies out of
recession. This infusion of borrowing takes place through large banks,
which in turn are used to prop up the entire financial system.
Traditionally, free markets recognize the inflationary effect of such central
bank behavior, and "alternative forms of money" such as gold, silver, or other
currencies become safe havens.
I've never been big on conspiracy theories, but the
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee
(GATA) has argued for some time that western central banks have engaged in
accounting deception to sell (i.e. "lease") vault gold and thus depress the
market prices of gold and silver. However, this ploy may have run its
course as other nations (Russia, China, and the Middle-East) flush with
newly-printed U.S. trading dollars are more than willing to exchange them for
physical gold on world markets.
Further, some large U. S. banks are also currently engaged in non-traditional
commodity speculation, i.e. taking "short positions" in the futures trading.
Silver analyst Ted Butler asks, "What real legitimate business do 2 or 3
U.S. banks suddenly have for selling short such quantities of speculative
instruments over a brief time period?"
See article
here . My answer, based on 25+ years as an auditor/examiner in the
banking industry is "None." An investigation is fully warranted. Are
the various large benefactors and players of central bank
lending (fractional-reserve liquidity infusions) participating in a secondary
ploy to suppress the market price of gold and silver in an effort to divert
economic attention from a fiat currency collapse? This
might explain the current physical shortage AND falling prices.
Add to this, the government's
efforts to
manipulate measures of true inflation , and our economic condition could be
far worse than any "insider" is willing to admit. The Chairman of the
Federal Reserve continues to emphases the
"financial crisis" and "uncertainty" of the global economy .
PS. A part of the problem appears to be the
ineffectiveness (?)
of the regulatory U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC ).
"These highly disjointed and increasingly violent market moves are starting
to feel a bit like a car on a mountain road with loose steering…"
8/17/2008
I have completed the educational landscape section below at the 8/5/2008 entry.
8/16/2008
Tonight, ersatz-evangelical Rick Warren will host his two-hour Saddleback
Civil Forum on THE PRESIDENCY . CNN will carry the event live at 8:00pm
(EST), 7:00pm (CST), 6:00pm (MST), and 5:00pm (PST). The problem with
events of this nature is that both candidates are likely to be aggressively
coached by their political handlers to parse their words carefully. Both
candidates likely demanded to have the list of questions ahead of time, so that
their respective team could research and craft responses. Neither
candidate understands biblical Christianity nor is their 'worldview' really
consistent with a Judeo-Christian framework of values. So, dig out your
bottle of Pepto-Bismol and prepare to watch the heretofore fence-straddler vs. the über-radical.
In keeping with Rick Warren's robust set of questions, which candidate do you
believe would find withChrist.org "offensive" and dispatch their minions to
"pull our plug?"
As I evaluated the differences in each candidate's responses, and there were
many, I was drawn to the stark contrast in their worldviews over conflict,
war, and evil. John McCain has experienced evil firsthand and was resolute
in how to deal with it..."We defeat it!" By contrast, Obama's responses
were typical morally-relativistic and nuanced in which he equated moral
certainty with arrogance. He emphasized the need for being "humble," and
the possibility of being evil while opposing evil...an indirect slap at both the
current Administration and America. The same moral relativism was
expressed in his response to the pointed question regarding when life begins and
abortion. He side-stepped the question (one of many), and justified his
non-response with the cutesy statement, "That's above my pay grade." Like
I said, his 'handlers' had him well groomed for the event.
8/15/2008
Why Liberals and the Left Oppose Free Speech
and Distain Monologue...Except Their Own - One would assume that all
Americans would understand the value of the First Amendment. Not so!
For an increasing number, so-called "political correct dialogue" has supplanted
the right of free speech laid down in the Bill of Rights. How has this
come about?
Public education operates under the ubiquitous principle that no student should
feel offended by another's point of view. At
work is the process of the supremacy of the lowest common denominator
Today, liberals believe the ethos of the public school classroom should
logically extend to the public square. This is in part the motive behind those who
seek to reinstate the FCC's so-called "Fairness Doctrine." Their goal is
to build "consensus" views, i.e., politically-correct perspectives
which offend the least number of individuals. Being philosophic
relativists, dialogue is the enlightened and
acceptable form of communication since no viewpoint can claim superiority over
another. For them, monologues (except their own) reflect arrogance, bad
taste, and should be censored and banned.
Readers would be surprised at the number of emails received here from those
"offended" by something they've read. Some request that I delete this or
that based on their offended feelings. In anger, some seek to intimidate
and "order" me to remove information. A small number have even threatened
lawsuits, falsely claiming such-and-such statement is "libelous." To their
disappointment, such is not the case. I do remind them that they are free
to "change the channel" to any one of a... billion other websites.
8/13/2008
If you are one of the faithful who enjoy and appreciate this website, take
note. Due to their megalomaniacal drive for absolute control and power,
the liberal Left and Democrats are seeking to reinstitute the decades-old
"Fairness Doctrine." This legislation, originally passed in 1949
and requiring radio and TV broadcasters to present controversial issues of
public importance in a manner deemed by the FCC to be "honest, equitable, and
balanced," was generally repealed in 1967. The need for the original law
was largely based on the "limited spectrum of the public airwaves" (scarcity
rationale). Cases involving the application of and challenges to the
fairness doctrine vs. free speech rights under the 1st Amendment have reached
the Supreme Court on a few occasions. "In 1984, the Supreme Court decided
that the scarcity rationale underlying the doctrine did not apply to expanding
communications technologies, and that the doctrine was limiting the breadth of
public debate." In light of the success of both conservative
talk-radio and conservative websites on the Internet, and due to the Left's inability to monopolize the public
square like they have public schools, Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat
caucus, Senators Richard Durbin, and John Kerry, are seeking to muzzle opponents by
reinstating this law and extending its jurisdiction to include the Internet.
A bill to reinstate the law (e.g., HR 3302, 109th Congress) failed to gain
traction, but is
being
readied for re-introduction . The new legislation would address the
issues of both "balanced presentation" and "media ownership." It is the
so-called balanced presentation portion which may, hopefully, never reach
constitutional muster. Nevertheless, such proposed legislation does
represent an additional threat to free speech in the public square, aimed at
conservatives and conservative Christians. Let you Congressional
representatives know that you are opposed to the presentation portion of any
proposed new legislation.
Most are unaware that the Internet, despite its appearance of being a fully
democratic forum, is manipulated by companies like Google. Google's
sophisticated, proprietary technology (filtering algorithms) allows its
management to "weight" search results to reflect ideological bias or even
enforce censorship--i.e., search results not favorable to conservative views.
Despite my laborious
efforts to index withChrist.org's web pages , very few pages get picked up by
Google's "crawl" technology (Googlebot). This wasn't the case back in the '90s.
Supporters of withChrist.org can help in this effort. If there's a
particular page you'd like to see rise in Google's ranking, regularly submit
that URL address
HERE .
8/11.1/2008
Love & Respect , Thomas Nelson, 2004 . In short, the book is
phenomenal for several reasons. It's my intention to write an in-depth
review, since the essence of the topic--love and respect --extend far
beyond the sphere of building healthy marriages. So far, we've completed
Chapters 1-5, and I've read enough to recommend that all readers of
withChrist.org obtain a copy. The book is fundamentally different (in a
positive way) than evangelical books on marriage written over the past half
century. It turns an important corner toward stanching further cultural
deterioration.
8/11/2008
"A potential rush of events in which a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and
Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military
crisis."
With Western economies under
heavy stress from structural problems plus the
rising price of oil, Iran's defiance of UN sanctions, and now war between Russia
and Georgia, one Internet source is reporting a
massive US/UK/French/Canadian navel armada in route to the Straits of Hormuz
(the information is being confirmed at
DEBKAfile ).
The stated purpose is to enforce UN sanctions; however,
crude
oil supply lines are also in play . Consequently, the recent decline in
gas prices, commodities, rising stock market and
rebound of the US dollar may be
a short-lived phenomena. Special thanks to Susan P.- our helpful "research
assistant" for supplying us with many links.
8/7/2008
DEATH of TRUE LOVE “Whoever defines the
word, defines the world.” Today, the meaning of love has
been hijacked and largely redefined for use within a pervasive framework of
moral relativism--the post-Christian society.
The Greek word most often translated "love" in the New
Testament is agapē . The essence of agapē is benevolent
action rooted in the nature of the lover, without pre agapē is not "love"
devoid of any conditions! Says who? A sound and careful study of the
NT reveals numerous conditional statements relative to interpersonal
relationships.
The current world's so-called love is love devoid of any and
all conditions. It is a love severed and independent from light,
righteousness, justice and truth. The same holds true for "peace,"
"unity," and a host of terms. Modern love, so called, doesn't engage in any form of judgment and is characterized by a
perverted form of tolerance .
It is tolerant of all manner of
evil and wickedness, and intolerant toward those who would seek to identify and
scripturally oppose
the same. Thus, when a Bible-based Christian sets forth Scriptural
truth with any degree of certainty, they are viewed and falsely labeled as being unloving, abusive and attempting to
force their views on others.
Action: It has been this simple but continuous misuse of words
which has rendered the Church impotent relative to its responsibility for being
"salt and light" in society. Christians should be prepared to challenge
every misuse, no matter what the context, of the word "love" by asserting its
historical, biblical, and true meaning. Today's spiritual war (Eph. 6:12)
is being played out in a struggle over the meaning words .
"...in order that Satan might not outwit us.
For we are not unaware of his schemes." 2 Cor. 2:11
8/6/2008
Literalistic vs. Literal? The English word
"literal" carries some problematic connotations, and thus a fair amount of
confusion exists about how conservative, born-again Christians
should interpret
the Bible . Most often in conservative circles, literal is used to mean the normal,
grammatical-historic approach to interpretation that was rediscovered
during the Protestant Reformation and has been used by subsequent generations of
evangelicals. This approach means the "correct interpretation is the
one which discovers the meaning of the text in its grammatical forms and in the
historical, cultural context in which the text is expressed."
A literalistic approach to interpretation is
different. "Every word is taken absolutely literally including figures
of speech and symbolism. Historical background is considered unnecessary
and ignored. Any deviation from this rule is regarded as sacrilegious.
This method was used by the Jews after the Babylonian Exile. It is also
used by extreme fundamentalists and many cults (Children of God, Jehovah's
Witnesses, Mormons, etc.). Subscribers always use it selectively and it
makes Scripture unintelligible, contradictory, and unlivable."
It is this
literalistic approach to Scripture, together with
Anglo-Catholic
church tradition , which spawned the erroneous and socially-destructive idea
that marriage is indissoluble except
by death. Contrary to both, biblical
marriage can legitimately end by biblical divorce, as surely as by death.
Does this seem counter-intuitive to what you've heard over the years? If
so, read:
Till Death Do Us Part? Divorce and Remarriage in the Church: Biblical
Solutions for Pastoral Realities , by Dr. David Instone-Brewer.
8/5/2008
I have completed an “in-depth scan” of the book, None
Dare Call It Education , John A. Stormer, Liberty Bell Press, 1998. I
put together some comments and observations (here ),
which should not be taken as a complete book review.
One conviction of mine that has remained fairly constant:
self-education is an important personal and family value. Taking
individual responsibility for learning (life long) is critical for offsetting
the various educational deficiencies we all face during our lifetimes.
This value was transferred to me by my mother and her hard-working
Czech/Austrian family.National Center for
Education Statistics , nearly 75 million students (elementary, secondary,
and post-secondary) were enrolled (Fall 2007) in either public or private
schools. Nearly 10 million individuals were involved as teachers and
support administration. See the statistics
here .
The Condition
of Education 2008 (in Brief)
The Condition
of Education 2008 (large file)
(No
claim is made for the accuracy of DOE statistics.)
In addition to self-education, my view of the pedagogic
landscape looks like this:
Public
Education: Tax-supported
common schools are socialistic by design and thus suffer from a host of
structural ills, the worst being the
“supremacy of the lowest common
denominator.”
As with all forms of social
utopianism, outcomes never live up to the hype of the founding visionaries or
those with vested financial interests.
Why? The Fall.
Over the past 150+ years, American education has inevitably failed in its
mission to create genuinely literate citizens.
From time-to-time, exposés are run which reveal high school graduates
unable to demonstrate basic reading and writing skills, and poor global ranking
despite the annual $500+ billion dollar price tag. As seen in the graphs
below, only Norway spends more money per elementary and secondary student than
the United States. In the arena of postsecondary education, the United
States leads the world in spending. Does more money mean brighter
students? Of course not.
Under "Academic Outcomes" in the same report (linked above)
you find these facts:
Science: "The average U.S.
science literacy score [15-year-olds] was 489, which was below the average of
the 30 OECD countries (500). U.S. students had a lower average score than
students in 16 OECD-member countries and a higher average score than students in
5 OECD countries. U.S. students also scored lower than their peers in 6 non-OECD
jurisdiction..."
Reading: "The average U.S.
4th-grade score on the combined reading literacy scale was 540, above the PIRLS
international average of 500. Students in 10 jurisdictions scored above U.S.
students, on average. U.S. students scored higher, on average, than their peers
in 22 jurisdictions. No differences were detected between the average score in
the United States and those in 12 jurisdictions."
Students from the tiny country of Latvia scored higher in
both categories than American students. Sadly, the students are the
victims of a bureaucratic fraud and slowly awaken to their literacy deficiencies
as they attempt to compete in the global job market. As was highlighted nearly
180 years ago, public education largely serves the interests of Government, not
the family, nor the individual. Prior to America’s widespread urbanization and
“reforms,” some isolated rural schools, under local control, may have provided
better education, and a few may still exist in some backwater. Among
educational alternatives for Christians, the choice of today’s public school
should rank last. In most cases, it is a form of self-delusion for
Christian parents to think that what their children receive at home plus in
Sunday school is capable of offsetting the influence and effect of the public
school.
Non-Government Funded Schools
Secular Schools:
The largest decline (1989 to 2005) in private schools was
attributable to a thirteen (13%) percent atrophy in Catholic parochial schools.
Evangelical Christian and "non-sectarian" (i.e. secular) school both grew by
five (5%) percent. Overall, private school enrollment modestly increased
from 4.8 million to 5.1 million, respectively, and constituted only nine (9%)
percent of the total U.S. student population.
Christian Schools: American Association of Christian
Schools (AACS) , Association
of Christian Schools International (ACSI) ,
National
Christian School Association (NCSA) , etc. It must be pointed out that
there is a potential risk with sending children to Christian schools.
Hurdle #1. Given the raging culture war (overt and covert), your child's high school or
college diploma may be a liability when seeking to transfer educational credits
or even find employment. Never mind the fact that they might be
intellectually superior to their public school counterpart. For example,
the
University of California deny credit, relative to eligibility for admission,
for some Christian high school classes --including English, history, and
government, on the grounds that the subject were taught from a Christian
worldview perspective. The University of California disallows over 150
specific courses taught in Christian, Catholic, and Jewish high schools.
Hurdle #2. So you've graduated from a Christian, Catholic, or Jewish
college and you're in search of your first 'real' job. With the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 on the books and the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) on the beat, discrimination would be far from your mind
as you aggressively sought out a 'good paying' job. Sadly, this is naive.
I have personally witnessed company recruiters discriminate against ('round
file') applications based on animus against religion. When I called this
illegal practice to the attention of management, I became the pariah.
Engaging the culture war is not for the faint of heart.
Homeschooling: "The U.S.
Department of Education reports that 1.1 million, or 2.2 percent of all students
in the nation, are homeschooled." For Christians,
homeschooling is both the most ideal yet most difficult schooling option.
Parents have nearly full control over both curriculum and the learning
environment. If done correctly, homeschooling place a serious demands on both
parents. It requires extra amounts of passion, commitment, and
perseverance…as well as a good dose of teaching skills. Due to problems in both
public and private institutions, as well as hard economic times, homeschooling
continues to grow in popularity. Laws over homeschooling vary from country
to country, state to state.
Courts in Germany take a dim view of homeschooling and most have heard of
the recent court ruling in
California that attempted to make homeschooling illegal, but was reverse on
appeal . Homeschoolers face similar challenges when applying to many
public universities, but
condition are said to be improving . The possibility of religious
discrimination is still very real.
8/2/2008
Pushing Back The Darkness – A win for Colorado
broad-based evangelicals.
here and
here . I do admit, I love to listen to these arguments. I can't
find the arguments by the defense. The judge, at one point, describes the
defendant attorney's arguments as "inconsistent" with pertinent case law
and of advancing "puzzling and artificial distinctions." Colorado Christian University vs. Weaver are small
relative to the overall cultural assault on conservative religious citizens, but
nevertheless represent substantial moral victories in the face of pervasive
evils. While it may be no surprise or revelation to readers here, listed
below are the various national and local groups that made up the Amici
Curiae (Latin: friend of the court) on behalf of both the Plaintiff (CCU)
and the Defendants.Arguing on Behalf of the Plaintiff
Christian Legal Society - Center for Law & Religious
Freedom , Springfield, Virginia
Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons, LLP, Colorado Springs,
Colorado
Thomas N. Scheffel & Associates, P.C., Denver, Colorado
Alliance Defense Fund , Scottsdale, Arizona
Amici Curiae supporting the plaintiff:
United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights
Division
Burns, Figa & Will, P.C., Greenwood Village, Colorado
Douglas Laycock, University of Michigan Law School,
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Center for Public Justice
National Association of Evangelicals
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
American Center for Law and Justice
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, for The Council for
Christian Colleges & Universities
The American Association of Presidents of
Independent Colleges and Universities
The Catholic University of America
Jones & Benjamin D. DuPré, for Foundation for Moral
Law
Arguing on Behalf of the
Defendants
Solicitor General, Attorney General, Deputy Attorney
General, and Assistant Attorneys General for the State of Colorado
Amici Curiae supporting the defendants:
Three Harvard Law School students, Supreme
Court and Appellate Practice Clinic
O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Washington, D.C
Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C., Washington, D.C
American Jewish Congress , New York, New York
Americans United for Separation of Church and State ,
Washington, D.C
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation ,
Washington, D.C
People For the American Way Foundation ,
Washington, D.C
Anti-Defamation League , New York, New York
American Federation of Teachers , Washington,
D.C
National School Boards Association , Alexandria,
Virginia
National Education Association , Washington, D.C
National Parent Teacher Association ,
Washington, D.C
Colorado Education Association
8/1.1/2008
The McCain campaign has decided to have some fun with
parody.
The One
8/1/2008
From time to time, some have commented, "Why the name
withChrist.org ? Isn't it more accurate to say "in Christ?"
The website's name is drawn from the biblical (Pauline) truths of the believer's
positional crucifixion (death), burial, resurrection, ascension, and being
seated "with " Christ. See Romans 6:4,6 and
Ephesians 2:6. True, the believer is "in Christ," but only through his
positional identification with Christ, which is at
the heart of the Gospel message. Do you think you understanding the
Gospel ? Do YOU clearly understand
how you came to be "in Christ?" If not, then I recommend
that you familiarize yourself with
THE DOCTRINE OF POSITION .
7/30/2008
The website
Theopedia “an encyclopedia of Biblical
Christianity.” As a “wiki” (a
document collection managed by collaborative software), its vision is to build a
“comprehensive encyclopedia on biblical Christianity,” “promote sound
theology,” “lessen the gap of theological knowledge between the seminary-trained
church leader and the layman,” “build a Christian community for the promotion of
good theological content,” and “promote the Lordship of Jesus Christ in
all things.”
As one would expect, its highly-prolific founder and head
administrator Aaron Shafovaloff and other
assistants are thoroughly and unabashedly Reformed in perspective.
Theopedia adheres to an evangelical
primary
statement of faith , secondary statements such as
The Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance
of Confessing Evangelicals and Together for the Gospel , as well as
a “Writing guide.”
Although Theopedia contains entries for:
dispensationalism, John Nelson Darby, Plymouth Brethren, premillennialism, C. I.
Scofield, L. S. Chafer, etc., it is staunchly anti-dispensational and does
not consider dispensationalists or dispensationalism a part of “traditional,
evangelical Protestantism.” In these areas, their
website’s commentaries lack neutrality and
contain bias (contrary to their own Writing guide). They sadly promote many historical and erroneous Reformed
mischaracterizations, similar to those put forth by
John H. Gerstner's
WRONGLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH - A Critique of Dispensationalism.
It appears
neither the founder nor other current administrators are interested in facts
that run contrary to their preconceived notions.
Several years back, I created a Theopedia account and while adhering to
the website’s Writing guide, made several
contributions to the above topics. Nevertheless, those
entries, except for one single external link to MJS’s critique of the Plymouth
Brethren, were deleted and my account purged.
Summary: Don't go to Theopedia if you want clear and
accurate information regarding dispensationalism or dispensationalists.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the sine quo non of biblical
Christianity,
as taught by the Apostle Paul, JND, and others, is:
God has one purpose--to glorify
Himself in Christ. This involves glory in two spheres, the earthly and the
heavenly. In keeping with this purpose, God has made the Church distinct
from Israel, though salvation of all saints is ever and only by (sovereign)
grace (through faith), in view of the atoning work of Christ. The body of
Christ, of which Israel is not a part, is composed of saints (of all ethnic
backgrounds) seated in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6), and this
constitutes them a heavenly people (despite individually being brief sojourners
on earth), while Israel is an earthly people and shall be established in the
land by sovereign power. All Israel will then be saved (Rom. 11:26, etc.),
the rebels having been purged (Ezek. 20), etc. rah
A
grammatical-historical (normal) method of interpretation (hermeneutic)Anglo-Catholic , the
Reformation , and to a lesser degree
Anabaptist
and Baptist
traditions.
All Scripture "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16), but all
Scripture is not of primary application to a particular person or class of
persons which the Bible designates as such. All Scripture is not about the
angels nor about the Gentiles [non-Jews]. In like manner, all Scripture is not
addressed to the Jew nor to the Christian. These are obvious truths, and the
dispensationalist's plan of interpretation is none other than an attempt to be
consistent in following these [normal] distinctions in the primary application
of Scripture as far as, and no farther than, the Bible carries them. lsc
7/26/2008
About Us
page, one goal of this ministry is to help believers navigate the numerous
doctrinal 'minefields' which exist throughout Christendom and beyond. It's
a big job and fortunately I have faithful assistants here and there who alert me
to new and troubling 'hot spots'.
One such doctrinal minefield worth mentioning is the
evolving and deteriorating
Messianic
Judaism movement . The movement was popularized among the youth culture
back in '60s by groups like Jews for Jesus . The early movement
embraced the minority "racial pride" phenomena found on most university
campuses, as well as rejected the Pauline doctrinal emphasis set forth in
Galatians 3:28.
During the early '70s, Miles Stanford warned of the
deleterious effects of both Law and the charismatic upon these converted Jews.
Much went unheeded and many evangelical ministries today operate with Messianic
overtones. Beware of the potential consequences!
As paradigmatic examples, let's examine the Messianic
groups, Abrahamic
Faith
B'nai Yahshua Synagogues
Worldwide led by Joseph Koniuchowsky. Both Reformed and
Progressive Dispensational believers should pay close attention.
Rather than moving in the direction of fellowship with the
Risen Lord Jesus Christ, this group has progressively moved backwards into the
OT while seeking to actualize Israel's future New
Covenant. These avant-garde charismatic Jews suppose themselves
to be the now-existent "New Covenant Israel" - the elect Assembly
of Yahshua .
They rightly understand the error of Christendom's
"Replacement Theology" (the false teaching that the Church replaced Israel), but
reject the "mystery" exclusively revealed by the Apostle Paul, the truth of the
heavenly Body of Christ (ekklesia) mentioned throughout his Epistles.
According to them, "Separate-Entity Theology" (a classic Pauline dispensational
distinction) "where something man-made called 'The Church' co-exists as a
separate entity alongside the people of Israel" is an "unscriptural doctrine of
Hell and needs to be silenced via correct teaching by those of the single body
of New Covenant Israel also known as the ekklessia [sic] -- the
Assembly of Yahshua ." [emphasis mine]
Having semi-rejected the Scriptural concept of progressive
revelation and having been 'energized' by charismatic nonsense, they feel "led
of the Holy Spirit" to launch into
plural marriages--polygamy . Believer beware: a non-dispensational
approach to Scripture is treacherous ground.
7/25/2008
I caught up (sort of) with David J.
Jonsson's article files. Two very interesting, albeit complex and
involved from a general public perspective, are:
>>
From the Church (Mosque) to the Schoolhouse to the White House
<<
Barack Hussein Obama’s Contribution to the Clash of Ideologies
Mr. Jonsson draws connections which are both lucid and
stunning. The second link regarding Democrat candidate Barack Obama is a
six-part series, and let me stress--not for the faint-of-heart. Once you
start, you'll probably be engrossed for several hours, so plan your time wisely.
As I wrote one correspondent, "If this isn’t the lead up to
the Tribulation, then it’s a great rehearsal!"
7/24/2008
The declining role and influence of the Christian religion,
fundamentalist to liturgical, in Western culture, creates an environment ripe
for political messiahs . Read the creative -
He ventured forth to bring light to the world . At least that's the way I see this
presidential election shaping up. From so-called global warming to
economic meltdown, from AIDS to conflicts and war, the world's citizens are
looking for an easy and painless "answer." The Democrat candidate, Barack
Obama, appears to be effectively leveraging this global yearning for a
'redemptive' personality. Even the typically non-religious Democrats seem
to be enjoying their preceived campaign advantage. Somewhere on the
Internet I read about John McCain's daily Rx intake and thought, "The Mainstream
Media (MSM) will probably enjoy speculating on whether their chosen Republican
contender suffers from hemorrhoids too." Advice? Stay engaged.
7/23/2008
Anglican (aka Episcopal) Unequal Yoke at an End?
Despite their shared philosophic and theological humanism, the Anglican
denomination (globally estimated at 80 million) is undergoing a major
division--generally along the lines of liberal vs. evangelical. The
problem stems from the fact that liberal American and British leaders are not
representative of the more evangelical and morally conservative global
membership. The ordination of a homosexual bishop by American Episcopals
in 2003 was the a-bomb event that ignited a storm of global protest. For
the past five years, conservatives have been working to excise the cancerous
tumor, and more. "The Anglican crisis continues to escalate and will
do so well toward the end of 2008. This fall, several American dioceses will
vote [several already have] on whether to separate from the Episcopal Church. On Wednesday, a west
suburban Chicago-area priest confided: 'It's all over but the lawsuits'."
A similar type division (liberal vs. evangelical) is also occurring in the
denomination Presbyterian Church (USA).
To assume that only men, not God, cause division is to
create the logical, but false and un-Scriptural, assumption that men can always
achieve unity. Such efforts may produce an ecumenical and superficial sense of
'togetherness', but only at the expense of truth, integrity, and genuine
pneumatological (Holy Spirit) unity.
7/22/2008
Many in today's society are both hardened skeptics and
cynics. The Modernism of the late 19th and early 20th century rejected the
possibility of the supernatural and taught that empirical science was wholly
sufficient to arrive at any "truth" worth knowing. However, hallucinogenic
drugs and the decade of the '60s spawned a backlash of philosophic and moral
relativism, which then paved the way for our Post-modern era.
Postmodernism rejects both scientific and religious universal truth claims
(metanarratives); reality is purely subjective and uncertainty the only
constant. Thus, many younger generations will fail to see the humor in the
cartoon below. For them, this approach to reading the Bible is seen as
normative. Nothing more is possible. For them, the existence of
denominations and Christian sects seems a self-evident confirmation that reading
the Bible is purely a subjective exercise.
Dispelling today's entrenched skepticism is very hard labor.
Of course, viewing even a single
Pentecostal
revivalist Todd Bentley broadcast would likely make even celestial beings
cynical of religion. Miles Stanford's 1972 booklet,
THE LINE DRAWN ,
stands unchallenged as the quintessential answer to the entire spectrum of
Pentecostal/charismatic nonsense.
7/21.1/2008
At least some are privately candid in their opposition to
withChrist.org.
7/21/2008
"...the Bible is like no other book."
With the influence of postmodernism upon the larger culture,
claims of exclusivity have become less and less meaningful. The
meaning most people get from the above statement is that the Bible is simply 'different',
but not unique. From their perspective, Christians might enjoy it and thus it might be
'special' to you, but in their mind, no book is inherently superior to any other
piece of literature. Thus, when witnessing to your friend or colleague,
it's important to emphasis what you precisely mean.
"...the Bible is like no other book. It is unique
for it has come to us from God Himself. This is evident from its own
claims to inspiration. Paul wrote, "All Scripture is God-breathed" (2
Tim. 3:16). Though human writers were used by God to record the
Scriptures, using their own styles of diction and expressing their own
personalities, their words were the "out-breathing" of God. Inspiration
then is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit whereby He guided and
superintended the writers of Scripture so that what they wrote is the Word of
God. This "breathing" into the writings, or superintending over the
writings, was an act both verbal and plenary. It was verbal in that that
the Holy Spirit guided in the choice of the words, which cannot be separated
from thoughts. The Bible's inspiration was also plenary in that it
extended to every portion of the Bible. As a result it is infallible in
truth and final in authority. The Greek word for "inspired" (2 Tim. 3:16,
NASB ) is theopneustos ,
literally "God-breathed" (as the NIV translates it). Because of its divine
origin and nature, the Bible in its original writings was without error."
RBZ
7/16.1/2008
"Now, let's turn to the Messiah stories. Through TV programs
like "The Secret of
Armageddon," the Iranian government continues trying to prepare people for
what Ahmadinejad sees as the increasingly
"imminent" coming
of the Islamic Messiah. I don't begrudge them that, per se. I also believe we
are living in the last days. I believe the Messiah is coming. And I believe we
all need to live differently in light of these truths. The problem is that while
Jesus, the Apostles and all Biblical eschatology teaches us to love our
neighbors and our enemies in the End Times -- and share the good news of God's
love and salvation for all who will listen and respond -- Shia Islamic
eschatology teaches just the opposite. The way to hasten the Mahdi's appearance
or arrival on earth, Shia scholars teach, is to create chaos and carnage on the
planet and kill tens of millions of people. They believe that annihilating
Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it and sending the world goes up in
flames will then trigger the arrival of the Mahdi who will bring righteousness,
justice and peace and create a worldwide Islamic empire. Of course, it's one
thing to believe in such horrifying theology. It's another thing to run a
country based on it. Yet that is exactly what is happening in Iran today. Such
Shia eschatology is driving Iranian foreign policy. What's more, it is driving
the Iranian regime's feverish bid to build, buy or steal nuclear weapons and the
missiles capable of delivering them to U.S. and Israeli targets. Such genocidal
zealots cannot be successfully negotiated with or deterred. That's what is so
critical for Washington and our allies to understand. Ahmadinejad -- and, more
importantly, the Ayatollah Khamenei -- don't want to be stopped. They believe
they are on a God-given mission to bring about the end of the world, and they
are eager and passionate about getting the job done as quickly as possible."
Joel C. Rosenberg, 7/10/2008
7/16/2008
Campus
Cruisers? - Many readers are familiar with the Arminian/Wesleyan
evangelical and ecumenical Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI) .
I spent time with and in the organization during the first year or so of my
Christian life. Read testimony here .
Readers may also be aware and sensitive to the fact that the term "Crusade" has
become rather 'politically incorrect' because of the rise in power of Islam
(Muslims take offense), the West's so-called "war on terrorism," and
pragmatic efforts by Western leaders to cast a false image of Islam as a
"religion of peace." For
the Muslim world, the word "Crusade" is always linked to the many
military/religious campaigns waged largely by Catholic Europe during the
Medieval Age, as well as their stunted understanding of the Christian faith in
general. So...did CCCI leaders compromise and intentionally alter their
name [Campus Cruised (sic) for Christ International ] when they
participated in the highly-ecumenical
2007
World Conference on Dialogue Among Religions and Civilizations ?
Curious minds want to know.
7/13/2008
I have added an addendum to the
Interpretation section of my article,
FROM GOD TO US,
The Divine Chain of Communication.
Addendum: For further study, obtain a copy of Roy Zuck's
Basic Bible Interpretation: A Practical Guide to Discovering Biblical Truth,
Victor Books, 1991. This is an excellent seminary-level textbook used
at Dallas Theological Seminary by Dr. Zuck. The textbook is a great
resource; however, it is a bit dated in that it was conceived and written before
the adverse influence of postmodernism took hold within academic circles and
culture and thus fails to address some of these more contemporary issues.
If you're a bit murky on postmodernism (pomo for
short) or
"Emergent", that's acceptable...if you're over the
age of 40. You may get a better understanding by backing into this form of
contemporary reality. See the creative
Emergence-See ¤ Po-Motivators for Emergent Christians, Motivational Posters
for the Emerging Church
Conversation CHAOS
by TeamPyro.blogspot.com.
For any of you are struggling to raise (or even communicate)
with your pomo-infected children or relatives, or concerned with the new "Emergent" youth group in your
church, you won't want to miss TeamPyro's satirical and humorous motivational posters.
7/12/2008
At $150 USD a barrel of oil, the globalized economies face a
'slow-motion' Armageddon. Certain businesses and banks will fail early,
others later as the high cost of energy works its way through...like rows of
dominos. Planned or unplanned, the outcomes are similar. Theories
abound why crude oil has more than doubled in such a short period. Will
the financial collapse set in motion the prophetic, biblical Armageddon?
Some think so...both in America and the Middle East. Keep in mind that
events will move at a slower-than-expected pace due to the scale of
interconnections at the global level. Yet, tensions are rising in Israel
and the Middle East and at some point, the pressures will be released.
Time is running out for this cast of world stage actors and actresses.
7/11/2008
"The 9th Circle in Dante's Inferno - starring Judas and Brutus - is a frozen
lake. Cold can be more frightful than heat. "Blue pinch'd and shrined in ice the
spirits stood," (Canto XXXIII). Such awaits the victims of debt deflation."
I understand that many readers will scratch their head after reading the above
quote from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy (unless you read it back
during your school days and your memory is still working), as well as
ponder the connection with the economics of "debt deflation."
Side note: Alighieri's work is "widely
considered the central epic poem of Italian literature and is seen as one of
the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and
allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a culmination of the medieval
worldview as it had developed in the Western [Catholic] Church." But...debt
deflation ? The above quote is the masterful journalistic ending to
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's most recent gaze into his economic crystal ball--Monetarists
warn of crunch across Atlantic economies.
"Bubbles."
"Blue pinch'd and shrined in ice the spirits stood,"... they did.
7/7/2008
Where the Bible Speaks of Being “Born Again” and Why It is Synonymous with
Genuine Christianity
Mail this page to a friend
To my knowledge, the following is unprecedented in U.S.
monetary history. In response to the limbo question, "How low can you go?",
the yield on secondary market, 4-week Treasury bills hit a low 0.01%.
Yes, that's right, 1/10th of 1.0% While the globe is awash in U.S. dollars,
bank's remain hesitant to lend due to high 'repayment' risk. Money will
need to be forced into the economy, likely through
various 'make-work' programs reminiscent of the Great Depression. For
those who lived through the late '70s and early '80s, it was none other than
Paul Volcker who administered the 'fiscal medicine'. Volcker, then acting
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is widely credited with ending the United
States' stagflation crisis of the 1970s by limiting the growth of the money
supply and abandoning the previous policy of targeting interest rates.
Inflation, which peaked at 13.5% in 1981, was successfully lowered to 3.2% by
1983. Mr. Volcker has agreed to serve as Chairman of President-Elect
Barack Obama's new Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Brace
yourself.
This
evangelical Christian ministry is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and remains a
leader in providing online biblical resources.
Bible.org was instrumental in the development and 2005 publication of the
NET (New English Translation) Bible which includes nearly sixty-one thousand
translator notes.
